'The Gates' transform Central Park

From mid-day today through Feb. 27, The Gates - a grandly ambitious work by environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude- will transform the park.

Along every pedestrian walkway in the park - 23 miles in all - there will be gates, made of orange PVC vinyl. While the gates will vary in width, each will be 16 feet high. Hanging from each will be a rectangle of saffron-colored fabric, seven feet above the walkway. In all, there will be 7,500 gates.

It will be the largest art project in the city's history. And like other works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - like the 24-mile Running Fence in California, or the wrapping of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris - it will be short-lived. The pair deliberately makes these installations to take them down.

"It's an aesthetic,'' Jeanne-Claude said at a press conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Friday. "We show great love and tenderness for what will not last - childhood, our own mortal lives - because we know these things will not last.''

Christo and Jeanne-Claude - born on the same day and the same hour on June 13, 1935 - have been working together since 1958. All their projects have been total collaborations since then, Christo said.

The couple moved to New York City in 1964 and have lived there ever since. It was by living in the city, and seeing the rich life filling its sidewalks, that they began to think of a project for their adopted home. Central Park - the city's great 843-acre park, and a work of environmental art in itself - was the place they chose for The Gates. They never considered another location.

Although Christo made some drawings for the project as far back as 1979, the project never got off the ground. They changed their plans over the years, designing bases for the gates, rather than planting them in the ground so that the environment of the park would be respected. They also made them higher, so that the fabric wouldn't hit any pedestrian.

Then the city's administration changed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg began supporting the project in 1994 when he was a board member of the Central Park Conservancy. When he became mayor in 2001 he pushed for it again, with the city finally approving the project in 2003.

As with all projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, there are no sponsors or government funding. They have financed the $20 million project through the sale of prints, drawing and blueprints of their work.

"Each of our works is a child,'' Jeanne-Claude said. "We want to create in total freedom - where we want it, how we want it. We can't always say when we want it it.''

The two chose February for the installation because they wanted the gray, bare branches of the park's trees to stand in contrast with the bright yellow fabric.

"We like the long shadows of the afternoons,'' Christo said. "It will be a real physical space. We want people to see it in the cold winter air, in the rain, even the snow.''

The project, coming in the slack tourist month of February, will also be a boon to the city, which expects many thousands of visitors from all over the world to come to see The Gates. Bloomberg said hotel rooms which are usually empty this time of year, are filling quickly.

"Restaurants are planning dishes like mussels in saffron sauce,'' he said.

The Gates will be free. Anyone can walk the park and see the installation. There is no starting point or ending point, no one place or way to see it. The best way to see it, Christo said, is to just walk.

"Each person will have a different experience and each experience is valid,'' Jeanne-Claude said. "Like all artists, we create works for ourselves. But those who experience it will know they are seeing something that's once in a lifetime. The two of us love the words, 'Once upon a time. . . .' ''